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Sharing a timesheet with a client

Share a report as a link, and the client sees a read-only timesheet of their billed time, day by day, without an account. It stays up to date and downloads as PDF, Excel or CSV.

On this page

A timesheet link is a read-only page of billed time that you send to a client. Anyone with the link can open it, without an account. It counts the time of a report as billed, one row per day, and updates as time is tracked. Admins create links in the web app, from Reports.

  1. In the web app, open Reports and filter it to what the client should see, such as their client or project, and the people, tasks or tags.
  2. Click Share, then New link from this report.
  3. Give it a title and choose the settings below.
  4. Click Create and copy link, and send the link to the client.

The link keeps the report’s filters and rounding. To share other time, change the report and create another link.

Setting What it does
Title The large title on the page, such as the client’s name. Spindle suggests the client or project the report is filtered by.
From The name at the top of the page and in its downloads: the workspace, The person who did the work, or Another name. The person’s name is shown while the period has one person’s time, and the workspace’s when it has several people’s.
Period This month, Last month, This week or Last week move on with the calendar, and the client can look back at earlier periods. Fixed days always show the same days.
Show who did the work Adds the person to each row. Off at first.
Show amounts Adds what each day comes to, in the workspace currency at that day’s rates. Off at first.
Show today’s time before the day is over Off at first: until the day ends, the page counts up to yesterday, so half a day never reads as a whole one.
Hours as Time as a duration, such as 3:40, or in hours, such as 3.67.

What the client sees

  • The top: the name from From, “Timesheet”, the title and the period. With a period that moves on, Earlier period and Later period go back and forth, never past the current one.
  • A summary: the time, the number of days, and the amount if it is shown, with a bar for each day.
  • By project, when the time is on more than one project.
  • Day by day: one row per day and project, and per person if it is shown, with what was done and the time. What was done is the descriptions of that day’s billable entries.

The client can download the timesheet as PDF, Excel (.xlsx) or CSV. The PDF looks like the page.

The page always shows the time as it is now. Correct an entry from last week, and the link shows the corrected time.

What the client never sees

  • Time that isn’t billable, tags, tasks and labor cost.
  • Single entries, or when they started and stopped. Each day is one row per project.
  • The rest of a split entry. Only the part on the client’s project counts, with that part’s description, and the client doesn’t see where the rest of the hour went.
  • The time tracked, where it differs from the time billed. On a project whose Billed time is entered day by day or is a full working day, the client sees the time billed. See When the client is billed something else.

Describe a day by hand

On a project whose billed time is entered day by day, a day can say something other than its entries. Open the project, and under Billing click the note beside a person’s day. Write what the timesheet should say, such as “Call with the client”. The link shows it instead of the entries’ descriptions, until you click Use entries’ descriptions.

Admins and the project’s managers can describe days, except locked ones. A link narrowed to a task, a tag or a description shows its entries’ descriptions instead.

Click Share on Reports to see the workspace’s links, each with when it was last opened. Open one to copy it again or change its settings, or:

  • New address gives the link a new address. The old one stops working at once, so send the new one to whoever should still see the timesheet.
  • Remove link stops it working for everyone who has it. The time stays.

Links don’t expire.

Good to know

Good to know. The address is long and random, and anyone who has it can open the page. Send it only to whoever should see the timesheet, and give it a new address if it reached someone else.
  • Spindle records only when a link was last opened, and shows it to admins. Search engines don’t index the pages.
  • If a Spindle Cloud workspace’s trial or plan ends, its links say “This timesheet isn’t available right now”, and work again once it is paid.
  • Links work the same on your own server.
  • The client’s page is in English.

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